Chairman Bernhard Heusler Ground St. Jakob-Park Swiss Cup Winners | Manager Heiko Vogel Swiss Super League Champions UEFA Champions League Last 16 | |
The 2011–12 season is FC Basel's 119th in existence and the club's 18th consecutive season in the top flight of Swiss football. FC Basel started their season with various warm-up matches against teams from Switzerland, Germany, Georgia, France and Romania and played against Hertha BSC and West Ham United at the 2011 Uhrencup in Grenchen. This season, Basel earned the so-called "Title Hattrick", that is, three consecutive Swiss Super League championships. They won the Swiss Cup after defeating FC Luzern in the final, and reached the knockout phase of the Champions League, losing to the eventual finalists Bayern Munich 1–7 on aggregate.
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Season overview
Basel entered the 2011–12 Swiss Super League as defending champions, saving their one-point margin on FC Zürich by winning 3–0 against FC Luzern on the last day of the 2010–11 Swiss Super League. They began their season on 16 July in Bern against Young Boys. The start of the season was poor, with three draws and two defeats in the first six league matches. The team refound their strengths and things changed to the better. Basel then won ten and drew the other two of the next 12 games. The first half of the domestic season ended on 11 December with the home match against Neuchâtel Xamax. To this point, Basel remained as League leaders.
Basel's positioning in the 2010–11 Swiss Super League enterd them directly into the group stage of the 2011–12 UEFA Champions League. The seeding and draw for this stage took take place on 25 August in Monaco. Basel were drawn in Group C with Benfica, Manchester United and Oțelul Galați, the first match was a home game on 14 September. Basel played very impressive away games remaining undefeated, winning in Rumania and drawing in Lisabon and Manchester. They finished the group in second place after a decisive home win against Manchester United 2–1, thus securing qualification for the knockout phase, the round of 16). Here Basel were drawn against Bayern Munich. They won the home tie in St. Jakob Park 1–0 through a goal from Valentin Stocker in the 86th minute, but lost the second leg in Munich 0–7, thus being eliminated of the Champions League.
On 16 January 2012, club vice-president Bernhard Heusler took over the chairman position from Gisela Oeri.
Basel continued their undefeated run in the domestic season and equaled the Swiss record of longest undefeated run (26 games) in the Swiss league (previously held by Grasshoppers) ironically by beating Grasshoppers 6–3 on 12 May 2012. Although they could not surpass the record, they still managed to defend their Super League title despite losing to Young Boys 2–1 on the final day of the season. As they have done in previous seasons, the title win was celebrated at Barfüsserplatz later that night. After retaining first place, Basel will enter the 2012–13 UEFA Champions League in the second round of qualification.
Basel won the Swiss Cup after a 4–2 penalty shootout win following a 1–1 draw after extra time with FC Luzern. This was Basel's 11th Swiss Cup title.
Thorsten Fink started the season as manager of the first team. His assistant was Heiko Vogel and fitness coach was Nikola Vidović. On 13 October 2011, Fink left the club to join Bundesliga side Hamburger SV. As replacement was former assistant Vogel, who served as caretaker manager until the winter break. Vogel's first three games in charge of the team were the Swiss Cup fixture on 15 October, a 5–1 away win against FC Schötz, the Champions League Group C fixture on 18 October 2011, a 0–2 home defeat against Benfica, and a 1–0 away win in the Super League against FC Zürich. On 7 December 2011, he guided Basel to the round of 16 in the Champions League, defeating the 2011 runners-up Manchester United 2–1. After 11 games, four of which in the Champions League, with eight wins, two draws and only one defeat, it was announced on 12 December that Vogel had signed as head coach and manager. A few days later, it was also announced that Markus Hoffmann had been signed as an assistant.
Pre-season
Uhrencup
The Uhrencup is a club football tournament, held annually in Grenchen.
Swiss Super League
Kickoff times are in CET
As Neuchâtel Xamax had their license revoked during the winter break, the club's second-half matches were entirely cancelled. The second half of the season is being competed with only nine clubs. These will play another double round-robin schedule. Each of the nine clubs will have played 34 matches at the end of the season.
Squad and statistics
Last updated: 7 December
Source: [1]
Ordered by Starting 11 then appearances
0 shown as blank